I recently heard a woman talking about people who say surgery is the "easy way out" for the obese. We, on this board, all know this isn't going to be easy!

She mentioned people who are having double, triple, even quadruple bypasses, hip and/or knee replacements, diabetic related surgeries, etc. Aren't they also taking "the easy way" by having surgery instead of losing weight on their own and preventing the need for the surgery?

Think about it! How many surgeries, medications, testing, etc. could be avoided by people losing weight? You know the insurance companies wouldn't be paying for WLS if they didn't believe it to be true!

Remember this the next time someone infers you are taking "the easy way!"

Yeah, there is nothing "easier" than having 85% of your tummy removed!! LoL

Granted, it is "easier" than Weight Watchers or popping prescription pills, losing some then gaining it back, sometimes MORE than you'd lost.....when hunger is gone it does make things easier but we still must have self control, we still must make wise choices. It's easier to avoid temptations now, but sleeve surgery is not a quick fix. Anyone who thinks it is, well, they're stupid or jealous!! LoL

Those types of opinions are nothing but ignorant and said by people who refuse to educate themselves about something before they open their mouths.

That whole attitude is just ridiculous. It's like saying that taking birth control pills is the "easy way out" -- people should just rely on the rhythm method! God forbid you take advantage of advances in modern medicine when you could stick to old-fashioned, more difficult ways of preventing unwanting pregnancies! Women who take the pill are lazy! They should take their cervical temperature, carefully graph their potentially fertile days, and practice appropriate abstinence on those days just like our grandmothers did! Who cares if birth control pills are statistically more successful? They're too easy!

Why do some people get so riled up about other people actually using modern medicine? Isn't what's important that we ALL get healthy with the help and guidance of medical professionals, whether that is with surgery and diet and exercise, with drugs and diet and exercise, or diet and exercise alone? Why do some people feel it appropriate to denigrate other people's decisions about what is medically best for them.

And we all know that there is nothing easy about the surgery. Surgery is statistically more successful but I would never call it the easy way out.

Very well said everyone!!!

Thanx Bufflehead, I'll remember that the next time I hear that I did take the easy way out, your comparison to birth control, never thought of that. I do sort of understand what some of my friends mean when they say that it's the easy way to lose weight, SORT OF. They say "oh well, see I have to control my portions by myself where as you'll be controlling yours due to a smaller stomach, so it's easier for you, your stomach won't allow you to overeat". I agree somewhat, but again, it's a tool, and eventually I could stretch my stomach, not like it used to be but it's still a life style change. Don't they remember when I spent 5 days a week at a gym, an hour on cardio each day and lost so much weight, only to gain it back when my back went out, and left arm went numb? And, then until that was all figured out, it was something else. Didn't they see me go thru a 3 month pre surgery program, meetings after meetings after meetings and the gym again?

I think many will see what they want to see, and we can't change that view. I think when I hear this in the future, since I'll be going back to work in a week, I will have to kindly just say "I really don't want to comment on that, you can feel how you want to feel." and leave it at that. We can't change others, we can only change ourselves, AND we will!!

Just last night I begged my husband not to tell his family about my decision to have this surgery. He was dumb.founded as to why I would feel this way.

If people only understood. There is NOTHING easy about this. First, you have a person that has been tortured by the societal stigma of being fat. Being able to still face the world and all its prejudices takes a huge amount of courage. I know, I've been doing it since FIRST GRADE. But I persevered. Through my thin beautiful mother's disappointment in me, through elementary school, high school, college, professionally. Through my divorce and remarriage. Through medical diagnoses -- cancer, multiple sclerosis and lupus. Then you come to the decision to have SURGERY -- knowing the risks and the life changing consequences. But you are willing to risk your life and endure major, BODY/LIFE altering SURGERY for the chance to be finally be free of the self loathing and have peace in your soul.

By the time you come to this decision you probably possess more courage and character than they could possibly understand and could possibly hope to possess.

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Our unit secretary asked me if I thought having surgery was the easy way out, and honestly, I don't care if it is the easy way out, because the hard way out is in a coffin. No thanks, I'll take easy any day.

No one other than my husband, my doctors, and one friend know I had this surgery.

Recently, a good friend of mine changed nursing jobs from being in the ICCU for extreme critical care hospital patients to the post-op recovery unit. He's working in the hospital where I had my surgery and is now seeing patients coming out of all kinds of surgeries, including weight-loss. He's listened to me struggle with weight loss for years, and himself struggles to lose/gain the same 20-30 extra pounds he needs to lose. He does not know I had the surgery, and is not a fan of the high-protein, low-carb plan I've been following. Yet, I've lost almost 105 pounds in 7.5 months and he's in exactly the same spot on the scale unchanged.

He used to tell stories of patients in the ICCU who had heart disease, liver problems, and other critical organ failures, many of them related to unhealthy lifestyles and excess weight. He complained that they didn't do more to prevent those problems.

Last week he was talking about some of the new experiences in the recovery unit, and mentioned this "big princess" who was just too much to handle. My ears perked as he said she had gastric-bypass and was "a lot of work" to manage the pain. Like her pain was different from the pain anyone else experiences being cut open for any other reason. I asked if she actually had bypass or another type of WLS (tipping my hand a little too much) and he said, "What's the difference?" He finished it off by saying, "I mean what a princess. Who doesn't have enough self-control to just eat smaller portions and lose weight the real way? Doesn't she know she's ruining herself with lifelong Vitamin deficencies?" At that point, my husband could feel the hairs standing on the back of my neck and directed the conversation in another direction.

It just goes to show that even those who work in the medical field aren't always up-to-date on everything, and aren't experts in health. They know what they know to do their job, but outside of that they are just as under- and/or misinformed as anyone else who hasn't done the research. Just shrug it off and move on. Educate when you can, but be proud of taking your health into your own hands.

No one other than my husband' date=' my doctors, and one friend know I had this surgery.

Recently, a good friend of mine changed nursing jobs from being in the ICCU for extreme critical care hospital patients to the post-op recovery unit. He's working in the hospital where I had my surgery and is now seeing patients coming out of all kinds of surgeries, including weight-loss. He's listened to me struggle with weight loss for years, and himself struggles to lose/gain the same 20-30 extra pounds he needs to lose. He does not know I had the surgery, and is not a fan of the high-protein, low-carb plan I've been following. Yet, I've lost almost 105 pounds in 7.5 months and he's in exactly the same spot on the scale unchanged.

He used to tell stories of patients in the ICCU who had heart disease, liver problems, and other critical organ failures, many of them related to unhealthy lifestyles and excess weight. He complained that they didn't do more to prevent those problems.

Last week he was talking about some of the new experiences in the recovery unit, and mentioned this "big princess" who was just too much to handle. My ears perked as he said she had gastric-bypass and was "a lot of work" to manage the pain. Like her pain was different from the pain anyone else experiences being cut open for any other reason. I asked if she actually had bypass or another type of WLS (tipping my hand a little too much) and he said, "What's the difference?" He finished it off by saying, "I mean what a princess. Who doesn't have enough self-control to just eat smaller portions and lose weight the real way? Doesn't she know she's ruining herself with lifelong Vitamin deficencies?" At that point, my husband could feel the hairs standing on the back of my neck and directed the conversation in another direction.

It just goes to show that even those who work in the medical field aren't always up-to-date on everything, and aren't experts in health. They know what they know to do their job, but outside of that they are just as under- and/or misinformed as anyone else who hasn't done the research. Just shrug it off and move on. Educate when you can, but be proud of taking your health into your own hands.[/quote']

I agree. I work in surgery, so I've been present when horrible comments are made about overweight patients. I don't care about what people say, as long as my doctor continues to discontinue my meds for diabetes and HTN. This surgery has to work for me, because I would be so crushed to have gone through this, and still be sick.

So basically what everyone else said and adding - don't waste your breath arguing.

Grin, nod your head and write the poor sod off that said this. They will never learn, or they WILL learn once it's too late. This surgery changed my life, hell, probably SAVED my life and there was NOTHING easy about it.

I have been studying the "easy way out" comment that we all get. What they are saying is: "You don't have the intelligence and willpower to lose weight the "normal" way. You are lazy so, like the slacker you are, you relied on someone else to do your weight loss for you."

Most people that say this know how difficult it is to lose weight the "normal" way. But they feel like it is something "normal" people have to endure. Sleevers get shoved into the same category as people on welfare that could work but just want to live off of the system. You are a cheater.

What gets me is the unmitigated gall of some people who feel that they are in a lofty enough position to make such a sweeping judgement on you with nothing more than hearing "weight-loss surgery".

You can explain to many of them all day how it most definitely is not easy but you are wasting your time. You took a "short cut" and must be punished.

I seldom spend any time educating morons. I could speak to them of my near impossible attempts at weight loss dealing with the aftermath of cancer treatment and it's side-effects but for what purpose? I don't really care if they approve of what I have done. They can pucker-up for my now diminished hinder-side.

I saw (and currently see it the same way) that WLS is the "only way out"

I think in the coming years, more info about how hard it is to break the obesity cycle will come out. Just yesterday i heard of a study that showed that obese teens don't eat more then normal weight teens. I genuinely believe that once you are morbidly obese, you have all those fat cells, and all those metabolic triggers just waiting for a chance to get fat again. You can lose weight, but it is nearly impossible to keep it off. The sleeve will help with this issue, but of course maintenance remains a lifelong struggle due to the metabolic disease that nearly all obese people have.

so, the key is to never become obese, but once you are there, weight loss surgery is about the only way out.

And, I think the people who even have the opinion "easy way out" are simply ignorant and rude. What the heck does it matter to them whether someone else has WLS?? You don't approve of WLS? - well don't have it then! sheesh

My nut told me the percentage of people 100 lbs or more overweight who can take weight off and keep it off is virtually nill. It's statistically almost impossible.

Bravo to us who have found an effective way to avoid blood pressure meds, diabetes meds, heart attacks, joint replacements, etc. We should be congratulated!

I saw (and currently see it the same way) that WLS is the "only way out"

I think in the coming years, more info about how hard it is to break the obesity cycle will come out. Just yesterday i heard of a study that showed that obese teens don't eat more then normal weight teens. I genuinely believe that once you are morbidly obese, you have all those fat cells, and all those metabolic triggers just waiting for a chance to get fat again. You can lose weight, but it is nearly impossible to keep it off. The sleeve will help with this issue, but of course maintenance remains a lifelong struggle due to the metabolic disease that nearly all obese people have.

so, the key is to never become obese, but once you are there, weight loss surgery is about the only way out.

I read the same article. They summed it up by saying that if you are fat beginning in childhood the body will do try to stat fat no matter what. Very interesting...